


Only the Ocean and You

by Brumeier



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Dehydration, Established Relationship, M/M, Major Character Injury, Natural Disasters, Near Death Experiences, Ocean, Rescue, Stranded, Sunburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 16:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20049079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: What was supposed to be a fun excursion offworld turned into Rodney and John fighting for their lives out on the open ocean.





	Only the Ocean and You

**Author's Note:**

> H/C Bingo: hallucinations/illusions  
Crossover Coffee Round 004: Rodney McKay, ocean

“This is all your fault.”

“So you’ve said.”

“I just want to be sure you know,” Rodney said.

John rolled his eyes. “Because I control nature. You should try and get some sleep. Conserve energy.”

As if Rodney could sleep. He was drifting around on the ocean like a piece of flotsam, kept afloat only by a nest of random bits of debris. He was constantly nauseous, he hadn’t brought enough sunblock so his skin was drying out, he only had half a Power Bar left, and his head felt like it was in a vice because he was rationing what little water he had.

John and Rodney were laying opposite each other, because when they tried sitting up the whole thing overbalanced, and Rodney didn’t want to take another dip in the saltwater; his uniform had dried stiff and itchy. 

John was worse off because he was injured on top of everything else.

“How much longer do you think we’ll be bobbing around out here like chum?”

“Should’ve been here by now,” John sighed. He shifted a little, face tight with pain.

Rodney hated seeing John like that. They’d already gone through all the ibuprofen they had in Rodney’s med kit; there was nothing he could do for John, and that hurt Rodney worse than anything else.

“You need more water.” Rodney unhooked the canteen from his tac vest, which was resting in a heap beside him because it was too hot to wear.

“No,” John said.

“You need to stay hydrated. You can’t afford the lowered blood pressure or the increased heart rate. Frankly, I’m surprised neither of us has succumbed to delirious hallucinations yet, which usually goes hand-in-hand with –”

“McKay.”

Rodney almost bit his tongue to cut off his rambling monologue. The hand holding the canteen was shaking but he managed to unscrew the cap. He tried to pass it over to John.

“Take this.”

“No.”

“Don’t ‘no’ me! Open up.” 

Rodney wriggled closer and put the canteen to John’s lips, but John jerked his head back. 

“No! Stop wasting the water!”

“You need it more than me!”

And really, John wasn’t able to put up much resistance, not in his current condition. Rodney made sure not to give him too much.

“Now you need to rest. I mean it, Rodney.”

“Only if you do, too.”

More eye-rolling, but then John dutifully closed his eyes. Rodney did the same, but despite how tired he was sleep didn’t come easy. He couldn’t stop seeing that wall of water coming right at him, couldn’t forget the absolute certainty he was going to die. If only they’d taken the ‘jumper to P45-YR2, they might’ve made it out of there.

“Stop thinking so loud,” John grumbled. “I can’t hear myself sleep.”

If rescue didn’t come soon, Rodney knew he was going to wish they’d both drowned. He didn’t want to watch John die.

*o*o*o*

_“This is pointless,” Rodney complained. “I have work backing up in the labs, and you dragged me out here to do what, exactly?”_

_He gestured at the seemingly endless strip of empty beach and the ocean beyond._

_“There was a notation in the database,” John replied. “Seemed worth checking out.”_

_Rodney studied him for a long moment, taking in the shades and the relaxed posture and the little grin on his face. “What notation?”_

_“Uninhabited,” John replied with an eyebrow waggle._

_Well, that explained why Teyla and Ronon hadn’t come along._

_“Did you just waste city resources and my time for an offworld booty call?” Rodney asked, trying his hardest to sound outraged._

_“Maybe.”_

_John unhooked his tac vest and set it on the ground at his feet, stretching languidly after he did so. And oh, look. His shirt wasn’t tucked in and all that stretching was showing off a strip of bare skin. Bastard knew exactly what he was doing._

_Rodney decided to forgo the usual verbal sparring. He grabbed hold of John’s black uniform shirt and yanked him in for a kiss._

*o*o*o*

Rodney tried to keep a look-out for ocean predators and bird predators and anything that might be solid land. Early on there’d been a lot of debris bobbing around with them, but it had slowly dispersed. He worried he’d miss something important, especially since he kept dozing off and zoning out.

“We missed check-in,” Rodney muttered. He wasn’t sure if John was awake or asleep, but talking out loud made him feel better. “They should’ve found us by now. Unless there’s something interfering with the LSD. Atmospheric conditions, maybe. I’ve been saying we need to revamp those; they can be tragically inaccurate.”

He was very studiously not thinking about the canteen, which had a little fresh water sloshing around in it thanks to a rain storm the night before. Rodney had used his hands as a funnel to capture as much of it as he could, which admittedly wasn’t enough for the two of them. The rain had been a nice respite, though.

“Do you think they’ll know something’s wrong with the LSD? Or will they assume we died in the tsunami and stop looking for us? Zelenka at least should be smart enough to figure it out. He’d come with the rescue team, don’t you think? He’d know what readings to look for. Major Lorne doesn’t like me, not really, but he’d do everything in his power to find _you_. No man left behind, right?”

“Rodney,” John whispered. “Stop talking. Your mouth is gonna dry out.”

His mouth was already dry, and his throat was sore and scratchy, but not talk? He’d go crazy.

“Do you need some water?” Rodney reached for the canteen but it took him far too long to get a grip on it. The shaking in his hands was worse.

“No. Don’t waste it on me.”

Every time John said that, Rodney felt a burst of panic. He didn’t want John sacrificing himself. That wasn’t how things were supposed to go, not now that they were finally out and open about their feelings for each other. Going down in a blaze of glory as they took out a Wraith hive was one thing, but terminal dehydration? Unacceptable.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Rodney chastised, but John gripped his arm with surprising strength when Rodney tried to give him some water.

“No.”

“John. Please. Please don’t make me –”

The sudden screech of a bird had them both looking up and scanning the sky. There hadn’t been much in the way of avian wildlife, aside from a few distant somethings that Rodney hadn’t been able to make out, and the sky above them was still clear.

“Hang on,” Rodney said. He pushed the canteen into John’s hands and then propped himself up on his elbows to get a better look at their surroundings. “Dry land! I can see dry land!”

Rodney and John shared a look, and Rodney felt cautiously optimistic for the first time since getting washed away.

*o*o*o*

_“Just to be clear,” Rodney said between kisses, “I’m not doing anything in the sand. You need to find me a shady spot.”_

_“Don’t worry,” John said, reaching around to grope Rodney’s ass. “I’ll make sure you don’t burn any sensitive areas.”_

_Rodney rolled his eyes and turned to survey the area. Surely there had to be a tree or a rocky overhang or…_

_“Where’d the water go?”_

_The waves that had been lapping at the shore when they first got there had receded so far Rodney couldn’t even see them anymore. Instead there was wet sand and rocks and flopping fish._

_By the time his higher brain functions kicked in and he realized what it meant, John already had him by the arm and they were running away from the beach._

_“Shit, shit, shit!” Rodney cursed. “Why do these things always happen to me?”_

_“Shut up and run!”_

_Rodney cursed again but kept it to himself. Damn John for insisting they walk instead of taking the ‘jumper! The Gate was too far, they’d never make it in time._

_“Up!” John shouted, and Rodney was confused for a minute until he saw they’d reached a stand of tropical-looking trees, something like a cross between a palm and a giant fern._

_“You want me to climb?” Rodney asked stupidly. “I’m no good at climbing, Sheppard. You know that rope you have to climb in phys ed? I could never do it. I can’t –”_

_“You have to! Now!” _

_John gave Rodney a boost before pulling himself up, and they climbed almost side-by-side. It might’ve been funny if not for the roar of the approaching water. Rodney tried to think of everything he knew about tsunamis, but all he could picture in his head was scenes from disaster movies and he knew those were more dramatic than scientifically accurate._

_They hadn’t gotten more than three meters off the ground when John shouted at him to hold on. Rodney closed his eyes and then the ocean was on them, a swirling wall of water that tried to yank him off the tree. Rodney clung as tightly as he could, he really did, but the current was so strong and it pulled and pulled until it yanked him right off the tree._

_The last thing he remembered was tumbling, no sense of what was up or down, choking on the saltwater and certain he was going to drown._

*o*o*o*

Rodney was on his back in the sand, watching clouds move lazily overhead while he tried to catch his breath. The debris raft had broken up on a reef, and he’d had to tow John to the island – or at least he assumed that’s what it was, he didn’t have the energy for even basic exploration at the moment – when he could barely move himself.

John had tried not to react to being jostled so much, but Rodney knew it had to have been excruciating for him. As soon as he could move again, he’d try to get John set up somewhere with more shade.

“This is better, right? It’ll be easier to find us if we’re in one spot. Hug a tree and all that. Do you think there’ll be fresh water?”

“Sure hope so,” John replied, and Rodney didn’t like how reedy his voice sounded.

Okay. He had to get up. He had to move John, and he had to look for water, and he had to mark the beach somehow so the rescue team would know where they were. Any second now he was going to do all of that. 

Rodney gave a little start when John reached over and grabbed hold of his hand.

“’s okay to rest.”

“You wouldn’t,” Rodney said.

“Would too.”

“Idiot,” Rodney replied affectionately. John was probably right. He needed to get his energy back and a little more time out in the sun certainly wasn’t going to make things worse than they already were.

Just another minute, he promised himself, and kept tight hold to John’s hand.

Rodney didn’t mean to fall asleep, he really didn’t, but an indeterminable amount of time later he woke up stiff and sore. Something was nagging at him as he pushed himself up, making a futile attempt to brush the sand off his clothes.

He checked on John, who’d fallen asleep too. His breaths were so shallow Rodney had a moment of paralyzing panic when he thought John had stopped breathing altogether. Water. He had to find water.

Rodney got to his feet and stood there, swaying and looking out at the horizon. He was having a hard time focusing, and no amount of blinking was clearing his vision. What was he doing? Right. Water. John needed water.

He turned around a couple of times, trying to get his bearings, but he kept turning back to the horizon. 

“What?” he muttered. He shaded his eyes. Was something moving out there? “Oh, no. Hallucinations. I knew it.”

His organs were probably shutting down while he stood there like an idiot. What was he…oh. Water. 

“I’ll get some,” he said to John.

“Stay put,” John replied, his voice so faint and raspy Rodney almost missed it.

“What? No. We need water.”

“Stay with me.”

Rodney didn’t realize he was crying until he tasted the salt at the corners of his mouth. “No.”

John was dying, right there on the beach, and Rodney couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t save him. Couldn’t do anything but watch him slip away.

“Please,” he whispered. “John, please. We came so far.”

He dropped to his knees and pulled John’s hand into both of his, hugging it against his chest. 

“Time to go,” John said, but he wasn’t looking at Rodney. He was looking over Rodney’s shoulder.

Rodney turned, and for a moment had a hard time understanding what he was seeing. It was familiar and not at the same time, and then he replayed John’s words in his head and the vision in front of him turned into a ‘jumper. He watched, dumbfounded, as it landed a little way down the beach, and then he was surrounded by people.

“Nice and easy now,” Carson said, helping Major Lorne get Rodney to his feet. 

“Carson?”

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, Rodney.”

“Do you have water? We need water.”

Lorne produced a canteen, but Carson would only let Rodney have a little sip of it.

Zelenka was there too, and from his expression Rodney could tell he looked pretty rough. Well, what did they expect after he’d spent who knows how long floating around in the ocean?

“Interference?” he asked, gesturing vaguely to the arm that had the subdural tracker in it.

“Yes. I have made changes to LSD, which you will no doubt criticize later. But we found you.”

Ronon was there, too, and Rodney was relieved to see him. Relieved they were finally going home. 

“You’ll need to carry John,” Rodney told him. “He’s in a bad way. He needs to get to the infirmary.”

It was like they didn’t even hear him, because they were still moving toward the ‘jumper and no-one was doing a thing for John. Rodney tried to pull away but Ronon just picked him up like it was nothing.

“No! You stupid oaf! John is _dying_! We have to –”

“Rodney,” Carson said. “John isna here.”

“What? What are you talking about? Of course he is! You have to help him!”

Rodney tried to get Ronon to drop him, but he was too weak. He managed to get a look back at the beach, though, right before they got to the ‘jumper. 

John was gone.

*o*o*o*

Rodney woke slowly, his eyelids so heavy it didn’t seem worth the effort of opening his eyes. He didn’t need to see to know he was in the infirmary, and he’d never been more thankful for a soft, stationary mattress.

He remembered bobbing around on the ocean. Remembered sunburn and all-encompassing thirst and John…something about John…

Rodney shifted in the bed and his leg knocked against something solid. 

“Hey. Rodney?”

That was the impetus he needed to open his eyes, because hadn’t John died? But no, John was sprawled in a chair wearing scrubs and a sling, his feet in nothing but socks propped up on the bed. His face was scratched up and bruised, but he looked very much alive.

“Real?” Rodney croaked. 

John pulled his legs down and grabbed a cup with a straw from the bedside tray. He let Rodney have a sip of water. 

“As real as they get,” he replied. He set the cup back on the tray and took Rodney’s hand in his. “You had me worried for a minute there, buddy.”

The tone was light, but Rodney could see the emotion in John’s eyes and the way he kept clenching his jaw.

“What happened to you?”

John looked down at the sling, the arm inside swaddled in bandages. “Tsunami slammed some stuff into me. Ripped my arm up pretty good. Got some bruises like you wouldn’t believe.”

That didn’t match up with what Rodney remembered. _John isna here_, Carson had said. Had Rodney fabricated him that whole time?

“What’s wrong with me?” Rodney asked. He was hooked up to an IV, two bags of something dripping into the line, and he felt a little sore. Did he have a head injury? Is that why he remembered John almost dying?

“Severe dehydration,” John said, and his hand tightened on Rodney’s. “And a pretty bad case of sunburn, but Carson put something on it to help with the pain. Might look like a leper once that starts to peel.”

“You were there,” Rodney blurted out, feeling insanely like Dorothy at the end of _The Wizard of Oz_. “I remember you were there.”

“I wish I had been,” John said, sounding guilty. Like it was his fault he hadn’t gotten washed away with Rodney.

“Don’t be stupid.”

John ducked his head, and when he spoke again his voice was thick with emotion. “Dr. Ramesh says it was a coping mechanism. Perfectly normal under the circumstances.”

Rodney didn’t see how there was anything remotely normal about it, but he wasn’t going to argue the point because he was so relieved that he hadn’t been watching the real John dying by inches. He hoped he never did.

He scooted over as much as the bed would allow and tugged on John’s hand. It didn’t take any convincing for John to crawl in beside him, their foreheads touching in an imitation of the Athosian greeting. 

Rodney’s love for John rolled over him like a wave, only this time he didn’t mind being pulled in. His feelings were real and that was all he needed to stay afloat. 

**Author's Note:**

> **AN:** Title from the song [Only the Ocean by Jack Johnson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf76O7y-7pk). _Grace Under Pressure_ showed us that Rodney can have pretty real hallucinations, but I thought it would be interesting if he didn’t realize he was having one at all. 
> 
> Special thanks to SherlockianSyndromes for the quick beta and encouragement!


End file.
